Primary bond market

The Federal Reserve opened the door to participating in a competitive bidding process for short-term notes, a requirement in Illinois law.

The system is managing the pandemic's impact on its campuses and hospitals, as well as a drop in the price of oil, which supports it financially. Neither situation is expected to shake its rating strength.

Uncertainty and volatility have caused a bifurcated market when it comes to credit, and widespread disparity between high-quality and high-yield is complicating matters for issuers.

The offering of special tax obligation bonds comes as the state begins a four-phase reopening in its next response to the coronavirus.

Yields on all triple-A benchmark curves out to nine years are now below 1%. The largest bumps were again on the very short end of the curve. Lipper reported $580 million of inflows.

Investors scooped up Illinois’ $800 million deal as the state dug deep into its pockets .

Investors are sending the message that higher-grade, longer-term issuers will fare far better than lower-rated, higher-yield ones amid a focus on credit.

A pre-pricing wire will be discussed by the state, its syndicate, and advisors early Wednesday ahead of a decision on whether to launch the deal or remain on the day-to-day calendar.

The short end of the municipal curve again saw yields fall, but that didn't impede the productivity of the day's new-issue market.

The Fed on Monday essentially said it was standing 10 feet back from the market, allowing it to manage the pandemic-driven crisis itself. Lower-rated issuers may benefit most from the facility.

High-grade trading Friday showed the disparate credit picture that investors are facing; they now need to dig deeper into municipal financials and the backstops on certain bonds.

In the midst of issuer credit deterioration due to coronavirus, muni yields fell and new-deals were priced on the heels of California's $54 billion deficit news.

Primary deals are now coming at tighter spreads to the secondary than they have recently. Cooler heads are appearing on the institutional side, but ICI reports $1.7 billion pulled from muni market mutual funds.

The lowest-rated state government moved a $1.2 billion GO certificate deal to the day-to-day calendar in the face of a skeptical buyside.

Two credits struggling with coronavirus-driven revenue shortfalls experienced very different outcomes in Tuesday's market. Taxable Penn State bonds showed the appetite for taxable munis is real.

A premarketing wire indicated the deal could price at spreads 300 basis points north of benchmark yields. In Monday's trade, the rally begun last week continued.

Taxable munis hold the distinction as being the largest positive sector year-to-date, up 2.81%. High-yield has been hammered, losing 10%.

A range of technical issues — from month-end accounting and financing to spread widening, price volatility and the coronavirus impact on businesses and the economy — spurred a tone of relative quiet in Thursday's trade.

April finished with $23.7 billion of issuance, a 15% decline from the $27.9 billion in April 2019. Volatility from the pandemic has caused erratic swings in benchmark yields, resulting in the lowest muni volume total in the month since 2011.

William Sims, managing principal, and Jim Bodine, executive vice president, of Herbert J. Sims & Co., offer some perspective and proportion around the impact of COVID-19 on the senior living industry and associated investments.